Image help, seperations

[johnh 3]

I have a low quality image that i would like to use on screenprinted shirts. I have low level experience redrawing this as it would be a color seperation. I have learned to trace my solid images very well thanks to this forum, But not able to redraw this just yet. Is this considered an easy image to retrace? And if so, would i be better of with Inkscape or Illustrator. Any advice would be appreciated.

[mopar691 281]

Pretty complex for not knowing anything, lots of halftones, white underbase and a few spot colors and you should be good. Use about a 320 mesh for a smooth gradient.

[Sue2 920]

Not an easy one to vector with all the shading.

Probably best (time and money wise) to let one of the graphics professionals tackle this one.

They are very reasonable in their pricing and turn times.

Even with experience this would take a chunk of time to get nice.

Pick your battles .... save yourself time and frustration and give your customer

a quality job. Remember, this will represent your work.

Sue2

[johnh 3]

Yea i tried to shade this and didnt come close enough. Learned a little more through the process but dont want to hand out low quality shirts. mopar691 I attempted this first on a 230 screen, Is the gradiant that fine for a 320? Im going to find a pro and just pay them to recreate it. I kinda need the image. Thanks for the advice

[Coaster36 327]

Why not offer to recreate the whole graphic? You should be able to make the tow truck and car look a lot more realistic. Someones 2 year old probably made that in MSpaint.

[johnh 3]

Why not offer to recreate the whole graphic? You should be able to make the tow truck and car look a lot more realistic. Someones 2 year old probably made that in MSpaint.

Coaster i just emailed a vector art company to see if they can throw me a price to redraw/recreate an image for me. Would you know of a good place to get it done. Willing to pay for it, at least till i learn illustrator better.

[MZ SKEETER 4,710]

I have read great things about this forum member drakesis

http://www.excaliburcreations.com

[johnh 3]

Mz SKEETER thank you.

[johnh 3]

Pretty complex for not knowing anything, lots of halftones, white underbase and a few spot colors and you should be good. Use about a 320 mesh for a smooth gradient.

one other question if you dont mind. Being im new to the Seps and halftones, Using a higher mesh screen, how many coats of emulsion would you typically do. I have read alot about multiple coats on higher mesh screens. Thanks for any advice.

[mopar691 281]

I do 1 coat on all screens (shirt side then ink side) and vary what radius of coater I use for the amount of emulsion I want on the screen, unless I am doing a HB print, other that that never have had the need arise for more.

I would adjust your method if you are having to apply emulsion in more that one application to get the required thickness. Seems like more of a way to open yourself up for voids, contamination, and varying thickness in the emulsion itself. But I could be wrong, I never read forums on screening, I just do what works with it for me. Results vary so much across the board with screen printing, what one does will cause major failure for the next. So take everything I say lightly.

[johnh 3]

Havent had the need for more but being new to higher mesh images, i read a post about coating more than once for higher mesh screens. Havent tried it , was just wondering.

[plbrooks 13]

If you used a program like Separation Studio to separate out the colors, you wouldn't have to have the graphic vectored.

[mopar691 281]

Unless you have a min of 300 dpi clean raster please use a vector or recreate correctly. Separation studio can only help you so much. This image he posted is useless, It is a low-res representation of what the graphic would look like on a shirt.